One of the biggest adjustments I needed to make when I started playing padel was how much smaller a padel court is compared to the tennis courts I had played on years ago. It seemed to take ages before I no longer hit almost every ball too long. To get at the precise dimensions I turned to Google for answers.
What are the dimensions of a padel court?
- Length: 20m Width 10m There is a net across the center of the court, splitting the court into two squares of 10m by 10m.
- The net is, therefore, 10m long, 88cm high at the center and 92cm high at the ends.
- The court is enclosed by a combination of glass (or solid) walls and wire mesh.
- The baseline solid wall is 3m high and extends 4m down the side of the court from the baseline with the first 2m being 3m high and the second 2m being 2m high.
- All solid walls are topped with 1m of wire mesh.
- The remainder of the court is enclosed by 3m high wire mesh with the exception of two gates at either end of the net. The gates are kept open during play.
- Indoor courts may not have a roof or other overhead obstruction within 6m of the court surface.
That is a lot of intense data all at the same time and when you take into account that the courts used for the World Padel Tour differ slightly in terms of the height of the glass walls on the side of the court we certainly need to look at each of these dimensions a whole lot closer.
Court Surface Measurement And Roof Limit
The court surface on each side of the net of a padel court measures 10m by 10m. That makes the total padel court 20m in length and 10m wide.
There may be no obstruction of any kind within 6m vertically from the surface of the court. This applies to the roof or overhead beams for indoor courts as well as tree branches for outdoor courts. During World Padel Tour tournaments this rule will also apply to the positioning of overhead cameras.
Painted Lines
There are painted lines on a padel court that show the area in which the ball must land when a player is serving to start a point.
All of the painted lines on a padel court must be 5cm wide. The edge of the line showing the back of the service block must be 3m from the back of the court. That, in turn, makes the inside edge of the service block 6.95m from the net. There is an additional line that runs perpendicular from the net to the service line. This line runs in the exact center of the court so as to split the service blocks into a left and right court.
Unlike tennis, there is no baseline or lines showing the sides of the padel court. There are only the back and sidewalls. There is no need for lines because the nature of how a ball bounces against a wall will tell you if the ball hit the floor of the court or the wall first.
I don’t know if it was just me, but I’m sure that all of us played that game with a ball and a wall as kids. Remember how we would throw the ball so that it hit the ground just before the wall and the ball would bounce up high for us to catch it. If we got it wrong and the ball hit the wall before hitting the ground it would come bouncing back to us along the ground.
The same principle applies to the game of padel. If the ball hits the back wall or side wall before hitting the ground then it is judged to be out.
Net Height And Length
The net spans across the middle of the padel court. Therefore the net is precisely 10m long as it does not protrude beyond the sides of the court. This is different from the length of a tennis net that protrudes beyond the tramlines on either side of the court.
The net is 88cm high at the center and 92cm high at the ends where it attaches to the net posts. Speaking of the posts that support the net, these must be no higher than 1.05m high.
The net posts of the courts used for World Padel Tour tournaments must all have padding to reduce the chance of injury to the players.
The solid ribbon that denotes the top of the net may not be narrower than 5cm or wider than 6.3cm. The ribbon must be white so that it is clearly visible against the color of the court surface.
Enclosure Of The Court
Padel courts are completely enclosed but traditionally have entrance gates at either end of the net. However many courts in small Spanish villages only have a gate at one end of the net, enabling the municipality to lock the courts overnight.
The most common padel court enclosures are made of glass and wire mesh. Some padel courts have concrete walls instead of glass. The first-ever padel courts that were built in Mexico had a combination of concrete walls and wire mesh.
The courts used for tournaments on the World Padel Tour are always a combination of glass walls and wire mesh. Not only does this give consistency to how the ball bounces off the wall, but it also makes it possible for the huge crowds at the tournaments to see into the court.
Where the solid walls are made of glass, the glass used must comply with the standards for tempered/plate glass for the country/state where the court is built.
Back Wall
The back wall of a padel court must extend the full 10m width of the baseline. The back wall must also be a total of 4m high. The first 3m of this must be a solid wall, while the top 1m must be wire mesh.
Side Walls
When it comes to the dimensions of the side walls there are technically two options that are stipulated in the rules as laid out by the International Padel Federation.
The first variation involves a solid wall of 2m wide and 3m high topped by a 1m high section of wire mesh as measured from the back wall. Think of this part as making a corner that is uniform with the back wall. The next section of the wall is a solid wall of 2m wide by 2m high, also topped by a 1m high section of wire mesh taking the total height of this section to 3m. The remainder of the sidewall is made of wire mesh to a height of 3m.
The second variation begins with solid walls to the same dimensions as the first variation. The difference is that the entire sidewall is topped to a height of 4m with wire mesh. This second variation is more expensive to build but has more structural integrity than the first variation and should be considered in areas where the court is exposed to conditions that could damage or ruin the court.
Court Entrance Gates
The entrance gate to the court is on the side of the court and symmetrical on either one or both ends of the net. My local court where I play padel each week only has one gate opening at one end of the net. Courts used for the World Padel Tour have gate openings at both ends of the net.
My local padel court where I play has two gates, one on either side of the net. Instead of a net post, the net attaches directly to the vertical pillar between the two gates. In this instance, each of the two gate openings must be 0.72m and 1m wide as well as between 2m and 2.2m high.
Other courts have a single gate opening of between 1.05m and 2m wide by between 2m and 2.2m high. That single opening measures symmetrically either side of the net.
The courts on the World Padel Tour have a single opening at each end of the net measuring the maximum of 2m wide by 2.2m high. That is because “out of court play” is very common at World Padel Tour matches.